Tangy Sweet Mint Fish | Fish Pudina Recipe | Fish Hariyali

February 20

I am a hardcore fishiterian..if that's a word. There has been hardly any occurrence where I have tasted a fish and not liked it ( apart form squid!). In fact I love trying out new fish variants and preparations all the time.  

Recently there was a day when I purchased a fresh bunch of mint for the market to make Strawberry Ghol and still had more than half of the bunch remaining. Mom wasn't too excited about the idea of making mint chutney ( we are really not that great mint lovers, apart from having it incorporated into some summer drink), so it was up to me to utilize the remaining leaves. 

I had a lovely fillet of Basa languishing in my freezer for some time because I had forgotten about it after pushing it to the back of my freezer! Finally I stumbled upon it again while rummaging through my freezer for prawns. I really felt sorry for the beautiful fillet which was practically frozen to death by that time. But nonetheless I was definitely not going to throw it away. 

Now when you have a dated fish, you need to cook it with something which will instill a little life into the fish like strong masalas - usually an onion gravy is a surefire solution to this kind of problem. But it would be a sheer injustice to put a fillet in a normal onion based gravy when it can e made into something a little more interesting. That's when I thought lets do some experiment with the fresh mint. The flavor of mint definitely qualifies as strong, and which would help in bringing a good amount of flavors into the very frozen fish.

It was a working day and hence I didn't have much time in hand to cook a fancy fish preparation. Something quick and easy which would go with daal rice was what I was aiming at. Thus came into existence this quick fire tangy and sweet recipe. It tasted so unique and chatpata that I can recommend this as a starter as well (However I do suggest when you make this recipe, use a fresh fish to get the best taste).. This is somewhat similar to Fish Hariyali which is a well loved dish of the Northern India.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Marination Time : 5-10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10  minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• Any White Fish (Basa/Haddock etc.) - 200 gm fillet/ pieces
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Mint Leaves - 1/2 cup
• Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
• Garlic pods- 5-7 (small)
• Lemon - 1/2 
• Green Chilli - 1
• Coconut pieces - 1/4 cup
• Olive Oil/Refined Oil
• Salt as per taste 
• Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Equipment:

• Mixer/grinder
• Non Stick pan & Spatula
• Knife

Procedure: 

1.  Clean the fish fillet and cut into 2 inch square pieces. Marinate it with a pinch of salt, turmeric and 1 tsp of oil. Coat all the fishes and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

2. In a mixer grinder, take the mint leaves, coriander leaves, green chilli, coconut pieces, garlic pods and a pinch of salt and blitz for 30 seconds to breakup the elements. Add a little water and pulse it for a couple of more minutes. Add the juice from half the lemon and pulse it to make a uniform thick paste.

3. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the marinated fish pieces till a little golden on both sides. 

4. Now add the mint paste to the pan and fold in the fish pieces. Adjust the salt and add the sugar. Add a little oil if required. Let it cook till the water dries up from the curry base. 

Note: If you do not like sweet in the fish, then skip the sugar. But sweet will balance the tanginess, so it is recommended.

Serve hot with flatbreads or steamed rice.

Check Out the DIY Background I made for this shoot.